British Academy – Measurement of Social and Cultural Infrastructure

Funding available for research that will investigate how social and cultural infrastructure can be measured, and so enable a better articulation of its purpose, presence, scale and value.

Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), the British Academy is commissioning a major new research element as part of its work theme on social and cultural infrastructure. The research will investigate how social and cultural infrastructure can be measured, and so enable a better articulation of its purpose, presence, scale and value.

The British Academy and Power to Change came together in early 2022 to collectively explore questions relating to social infrastructure and its value to different communities. The two organisations jointly published Space for Community: Strengthening our Social Infrastructure in January 2023. The report explores three aspects of social infrastructure:

1. The use of social infrastructure to support the social fabric of places
2. Treating social infrastructure as an infrastructure
3. Defining the purpose of social infrastructure.

Following the culmination of this first phase, the British Academy is now seeking to commission research focused on the measurement of social and cultural infrastructure.

The overarching research questions are:

• What are the key features of social and cultural infrastructure that can and should be measured in order to more fully demonstrate its purpose, presence, scale and value?
• How can this measurement be represented and operationalised in ways that enable policymakers and others to easily understand social and cultural infrastructure in ways that can directly inform policy decisions?

The research should seek to incorporate nuance, breadth and multi-layered thinking, partly through reflecting the depth and breadth of insight from across the SHAPE disciplines.

The Academy envisage that this research commission will divide into distinct stages, as set out below:

1. Defining parameters for the task
2. Developing the measurement framework and any associated pilot testing that might be feasible.